The New Headquarters of Leverage, Inc, (The Apartment Above Lukes), Monday

[age_of_the_geek]

Well, there was no more denying it. Their most recent ill-advised Plan E attempt had left Hardison with a nasty cold. Possibly pneumonia. Possibly consumption. He wasn't sure. It all got mixed together in a haze of coughing and sneezing and general misery. He alternated between sweating and shivering, along with that weird light-headed feeling that

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[whoisalicewhite]

"You're not dying," Parker told him, perching on the back of the couch. "You just wish you were." She patted him on the shoulder.

Parker belonged to the 'walk it off' school of pain and sickness, and was terrible about it when it was herself. She tried to be better with other people, but really? Hardison had a cold!

[age_of_the_geek]

"You a doctor now?" Hardison asked thickly. "I musta missed your trip through med school. Well done, girl, get that advanced degree. I'd'a been at your commencement, but I was laid up, fighing off super-bronchitis or whatever this is."

Hardison was a terrible, terrible patient.

[whoisalicewhite]

Parker offered him a pillow. Maybe it would help?

"I need to record one of your rants sometime. I just know it'll come in handy someday because they're so long and detailed and cool."

[age_of_the_geek]

"Rant, woman? Rant?! This ain't no rant! This is an impassioned, one-sided conversation about my own physical well-being that--"

Unfortunately, the rest of Hardison's undeniable rant was lost to a bout of coughing that had him resting weakly against the pillow Parker had just provided.

"Ain't no rant," he rasped. "S'just hurtful."

[whoisalicewhite]

Parker stroked his hair, because that did not require a medical degree.

"Awww."

Okay, now she wasn't sure what else to do. Because soup from a can would be good, but. Eliot would say it wasn't. So what was the protocol here?

[age_of_the_geek]

"Could you get me another bottle of soda, babe?" he asked, curling into her a little. Stroking his head would show, dramatics notwithstanding, he was running a decent fever. "My throat is dry and sore."

And drinking soda would fix that in a jiffy! Absolutely!

[whoisalicewhite]

"Sure." Parker hopped off the couch, because you were meant to do something with fluids, right? Right. "I'm sorry Plan E went like this. Instead of like we hoped."

[age_of_the_geek]

"Well he--" another bout of coughing, but Hardison managed to keep his train of thought this time "--started askin' about threesomes and stuff. The idea's there. Even if he ain't sure what to do with it. You think he picked up that it's him yet?"

LIKE IT COULD BE ANYONE ELSE!

[whoisalicewhite]

"I don't think so." Parker handed him another bottle of soda, then took it back and opened it for him. Because she was trying! "He asked about women first when I mentioned it. Wanted to know if we had someone in mind, and I told him we hadn't gotten that far yet. I don't know why he believed me."

[age_of_the_geek]

"We should prob'bly minimize the times we outright lie to him," Hardison noted. "I don't want him to feel we got him under false pretenses or something."

They were only sorta running on a con on him. That sorta was very important!

[whoisalicewhite]

"Maybe. But I didn't have anyone to say we wanted. And that would've been a lie too." She frowned. "This is so complicated," she complained.

[age_of_the_geek]

"We could always say that we have someone in mind, but not say who?" Hardison suggested. "...Or maybe just try askin' him outright." Assuming Hardison survived this plague, of course. One did not ask someone to become a permanent member of a poly triangle around a faceful of snot. There had to be rules about that. "I dunno, how was he with you during your conversation?"

[whoisalicewhite]

"Hmm." Parker slid down the couch to sit next to him. "Interested? Um. Helpful? He said he'd had one with two girls, once. He said it was fun." She hummed thoughtfully. "Concerned, maybe? So. Not totally turned off by the idea or anything."

[age_of_the_geek]

"Yeah, but bein' willin' to have a threesome with two girls an' bein' okay with someone else having a threesome with you an' me isn't exactly the same as him bein' okay with the idea of him an' me an' you."

If it were just Parker, Hardison knew Eliot wouldn't hesitate. But throwing him into the mix...by now, Hardison knew Eliot well enough to know that he wouldn't freak out about the offer, but that didn't mean he would be interested, either.

And, yeah, there was a small voice in the back of his head that was reminding him of all the ways he was different, he was other, all the things he'd been made to feel guilty about in his youth, from the color of his skin to the fact that his head was sometimes turned by a sexy guy instead of a sexy gal to 'age of the geek' becoming a rallying cry to take it out of the hands of his enemies.

Stupid sickness. Usually he could ignore all that stuff, but now he was feeling all vulnerable now. Ugh.

"Babe...babe, if he ain't interested in, you know, us, if you still wanted..."

[whoisalicewhite]

"No. No. Are you sick in the head? As well as the cold?"

Parker cuddled him a little more, noticing the fever and frowning. "Would you do it, if it.. if he doesn't want me?" Her voice got quieter. "I mean. He says there's something wrong with me, all the time." And mostly that was okay, because he did it when Parker had successfully annoyed him, or was doing something Eliot had never imagined possible. But still. She wasn't entirely sure, sometimes, if he meant...

"Anybody who doesn't want you doesn't get me. Even if it's Eliot."

[age_of_the_geek]

"No, babe! Of course not! If somebody didn't want you--oh."

Oh, yeah, he saw what she was getting at there.

"You don't understand, babe," he said, turning a bit to cup her face in soft hands. "Yeah, you're different, but you're perfect. You stole my damn heart way back before we even had to call the Nigerians for The Nigerian Job. He did, too--" if much later "--but I committed to you first, babe. And that means somethin' to me. Means a lot. Means you're non-negotiable."